"It wasn't like it was punishment or anything," Cheeks said after the 90-minute session. "It was just something we needed to do and we did it. We didn't go hard, it was just something we needed to do."

Cheeks addressed several subjects immediately facing the Pistons before adjourning for the rest of the holiday:

--On getting Andre Drummond more involved offensively, Cheeks said games like Chicago, when the Bulls flip-flopped their front-line matchups so power forward Carlos Boozer was on the Pistons center -- with Bulls center Joakim Noah guarding the offensive-minded Pistons power forward Monroe -- does not necessarily translate to an opportunity to force-feed the offensively limited 20-year-old.

"No, I mean, you can throw the ball to him on occasion," Cheeks said. "But it's almost like when a guard has a smaller guy guarding him, and you come down and post the ball to him, post the ball to him, and everybody thinks you have a mismatch. It just takes you out of the things that you want to try to do. I don't think that's the way we should do it. I mean, we could throw the ball to him on occasion. But I don't think that's the way we should do it."

--The Pistons' poor free-throw shooting (excluding Rodney Stuckey, the rest of the team shot 2 of 11) and general second-half offensive malaise against the Bulls (26 points, with starters shooting 2 of 18 from the floor) smacked of insufficient focus. Several plays at the rim produced nothing.

"It wasn't just one thing in particular," Cheeks said. "It was a combination. When everybody shoots that bad, it's just the way it happens. It's not like it was one guy or two guys. It was a lot of guys that shot bad."

--Asked if he could upgrade one thing defensively about the Pistons after the Bulls shot 50 percent or better in every quarter, Cheeks replied, "Just trying to keep the ball out of the paint, keep scorers out of the paint." That goes directly to Drummond's interior defense, around which this team largely is built. Despite his playing time going up from 21 minutes last year to 34 this year, Drummond's blocked shots have dropped from 1.6 to 1.2, and his per-36-minute statistics show an even more alarming dropoff, from 2.8 to 1.3.

--Cheeks likes his base backcourt rotation and has no plans to supplant Kentavious Caldwell-Pope as starting shooting guard. Caldwell-Pope was averaging eight points in his seven starts before he was held scoreless against the Bulls, though he's something of a hybrid for his position at this point in his career, with little of his game predicated on scoring. Cheeks said he doesn't suffer from any reluctance to trust the rookie. "That guy plays hard and he plays defense," Cheeks said. "So not at all, not for him. He gives what he has on the floor."